anthony had a reason for questioning the four men since (as a new thing that had come to him) he knew everybody. he knew everyone in salt lake city, where he had never been. he knew everybody in jebel shah where the town is a little amphitheater around the harbor, and in batangas and weihai. he knew the loungers around the end of the galata bridge in istambul, and the porters in kuala lumpur. he knew the tobacco traders in plovdiv, and the cork-cutters of portugal. he knew the dock workers in djibouti, and the glove-makers in prague. he knew the vegetable farmers around el centro, and the muskrat trappers of barrataria bay. he knew the three billion people of the world by name and face, and with a fair degree of intimacy.

"yet i'm not a very intelligent man. i've been called a bungler. and they've had to reassign me three different times at the filter center. i've seen only a few thousands of these billions of people, and it seems unusual that i should know them all. it may be a delusion as dr. shirm says, but it is a heavily detailed delusion, and it is not accompanied by euphoria. i feel like green hell just thinking of it."

he knew the cattle traders in letterkenny donegal; he knew the cane cutters of oriente, and the tree climbers of milne bay. he knew the people who died every minute, and those who were born.

"there is no way out of it. i know everybody in the world. it is impossible, but it is so. and to what purpose? there aren't a handful of them i could borrow a dollar from, and i haven't a real friend in the lot. i don't know whether it came to me suddenly, but i realized it suddenly. my father was a junk dealer in wichita, and my education is spotty. i am maladjusted, introverted, incompetent and unhappy, and i also have weak kidneys. why would a power like this come to a man like me?"

the children in the streets hooted at him. anthony had always had a healthy hatred for children and dogs, those twin harassers of the unfortunate and the maladjusted. both run in packs, and both are cowardly attackers. and if either of them spots a weakness he will never let it go. that his father had been a junk dealer was not reason to hoot at him. but how did the children even know about that? did they possess some fraction of the power that had come to him lately?